Pakistan telco awards $134mln satellite contract to NewSat

[justanotherdale]

KARACHI: Satellite provider NewSat has signed a 10-year US$134 million contract to provide satellite capacity to Pakistani telco 3A Technology, hot on the heels of a similar US$105 million deal earlier this month, ZDNet.com.au reported on Monday.

NewSat is planning to launch the satellite, dubbed Jabiru-1, in 2012. It will be a hybrid Ku- and Ka- band satellite, which will provide coverage over South-East Asia, the Middle East & North Africa.

3A Technology president Ali Ather said they will use the capacity to provide services to companies such as Mobilink, Pak Datacom and Pakistan government in areas of the Middle East with previously poor coverage, including Pakistan & Afghanistan.

“Pakistan and Afghanistan have poor terrestrial connectivity and rapidly growing consumer, business and government markets for internet, voice and secure data. Our large banking customers, along with mobile and broadband operators, rely on our satellite communications to support their network expansions and future business growth,” he said in a statement.

NewSat said the capacity will also be used for cellular backhaul in Pakistan & Afghanistan, as well as to support the roll-out of 3G and 4G networks

Sources: Dawn, NewSat

 

[farhan_9909]

really..

great news

dont know why no one posted here

 

[farhan_9909]

why was the contract nt given to suparco

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Pakistan will likely get some high resolution vision up in air to track all intrudes fantastic about time

 

[n4j1b]

Looks like change is coming in the region. Over the next decades rapid growth and change will be seen in the region hopefully if we focus on education and entrepreneurship rather than fundamentalism and backwardness.

 

[justanotherdale]

I agree with you. I think this is a great opportunity to focus on progress and aim at sustainable development. Hopefully, with this new technology, we can see changes from the grassroots up. It will be interesting to see how the government will maximize the technology.

 

[justanotherdale]

Pakistan is ranked among the top countries which registered high growth in broadband internet penetration, a recent report said.

Serbia tops the list with a 68 per cent annual growth rate from Q1-2010 to Q1-2011, according to July 2011 Bandwidth Report with data on worldwide bandwidth penetration.

Pakistan, which has seen a boom in its promising telecom sector and information technology services in recent years, recorded around 46.2 per cent growth in the number of subscribers and is placed fourth on the list.

Thailand and Belarus are ranked second and third, respectively, in terms of broadband internet penetration. Sri Lanka and India are ranked 11th and 14th, respectively.

Pakistan has a large number of bilingual internet users. Its software companies have created a niche in the international market in recent years. According to government figures, the country’s IT-related exports remained $1.4 billion in the last fiscal year.

Experts say that Pakistan’s IT industry has the potential to hit the multi-billion export target within five to 10 years. Additionally, mobile phone and wireless internet usage are also expanding rapidly.

The report shows that China continues to lead the world in terms of total broadband subscribers. As of the first quarter of 2011, China had over 135 million broadband subscribers. It said that the United States had over 88 million subscribers. Japan, Germany and France followed China and the United States in terms of total subscribers, it added.

The figures were cited by Website Optimisation, LLC, which is a leading website optimising firm.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 3rd, 2011.

source: Pakistan Tribune

I know this is old news but I think it's related/connected to the topic.